the blind of the blind

Since the mid-1980s I have been affiliated as a board member, consultant, and now emeritus board member of The Crisis Center.

https://crisiscenterbham.org. I urge you to read about their fine work here. I recently made this chapbook. Please read below for information about the poems and the chapbook. I am offering this as a gift to anyone who makes a contribution of at least $20 to The Crisis Center. Before you decide on your gift amount, read over what your contribution may be used for. Read about it and donate here: https://crisiscenterbham.org/give/donate.htm.

Send me an email (dalewisely@gmail.com )confirming you have made the donation. And I will mail you your copy, postage paid, to your address in the USA. If you are ordering from outside the USA, contact me at dalewisely@gmail.com and let’s make arrangements.

The Blind of the Blind

I made these poems by manipulating the text of Donald Trump’s 2019 State of the Union address. I used the “Glass Leaves” web app (glassleaves.herokuapp.com) to change most nouns in the text to the word blind then shaped and edited the poems. So, to give you an idea, the title of the chapbook, The Blind of the Blind, came from the transformation of “The State of the Union.” Blind for State. Blind for Union. One of the poems “CRIMINAL MIND (AN INTERLUDE)” includes a brief, similarly processed text from a familiar utterance by Donald Trump made on a bus.

As you read the poems, you will encounter the repetition of the word “blind.” A lot. I urge you to read the poems without paying attention to the repetition. Don’t try to find meaning. Just read and see what happens.

I did not choose the word “blind” in this poem to refer to sightless persons. There are other uses of the word blind which may well apply. (Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Ed.)

unable or unwilling to discern or judge unquestioning as in ‘blind loyalty’

having no regard to rational discrimination, guidance, or restriction, as in ‘blind choice’

lacking a directing or controlling consciousness

made or done without sight of certain objects or knowledge of certain facts that could serve for guidance or cause bias